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Friday, May 25

Good morning, TexMessagers! Today in 1961, President John F. Kennedy announced before a special joint session of Congress his goal to initiate a project to put a “man on the Moon” before the end of the decade..

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Rep. Bill Flores on the campaign trail (AP photo)

Congressman Bill Flores toured an Enervest hydraulic fracturing site yesterday in Texas’ Barnett Shale region, and called for a reduction in “burdensome” regulations on the hydraulic fracturing process, saying that would help boost America’s “economic recovery and job creation.”

Flores toured the Enervest site as a part of the nationwide House Energy Action Team 2012 American Energy and Jobs Tour. The point of the tours is to “highlight America’s domestic energy resources and the need to increase domestic production.”

“Burdensome Washington bureaucrat regulations and high energy costs are causing a roadblock to economic recovery and job creation,” Flores said in a release. “We can clear this roadblock by increase our domestic energy production and decreasing our reliance on unstable Middle East oil. Yet, many folks in Washington view our domestic energy resources as a liability; and they continue to dream up ways to lock-up, restrict, tax, or otherwise regulate these assets away from the American people.”

Hydraulic fracturing involves pumping liquid and sand down an oil well into subsurface rock formations, under pressure high enough to fracture the rock, enabling release of oil and natural gas. Flores said easing the regulations on the process would only enable Americans greater access to natural oil and gas deposits, therefore boosting the economy.

“The oil and gas industry is vital to our economy and hydraulic fracturing is an integral tool to increase domestic energy production,” Flores said. “I am working with my colleagues in Congress to ensure that Americans are able to take advantage of one of our great natural resources we have in Texas that provides well-paying jobs, improved tax bases for Texas school districts, and lower energy prices. In [a] nutshell, if we want to have American energy security, we need to develop a smart, stable and transparent regulatory scheme for hydraulic fracturing.”

Presidential campaign watch

Every morning, we share some headlines from the 2012 presidential campaigns.